More Paris Cocktails With Lillet!

Lillet (pronounced lil LAY) is a french apertif wine--essentially a tonic wine, made from a blend of various white wines and extract of the bark of the Chinchona tree (which contains quinine--the "tonic"). In France they serve
Lillet on ice with a slice of orange or grapefruit. Here we mostly use it as an ingredient in cocktails.

Lillet was the drink of Hannibal Lecter of Silence of the Lambs fame--the author Thomas Harris who wrote the books that featured Lecter as a character wrote more than one (the others included The Red Dragon which came before Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal which came after, and Hannibal Rising which gives Lecter's backstory) and as Lecter was ever a cultured, sophisticated soul, he drank a French apertif.

In any case, here are two cocktails containing Lillet. Rent the Lecter movies, mix yourself a Comet, and enjoy.

Comet

1/2 orange gin
1/2 Lillet
2 dashes maraschino

Mix and serve with olive
Serve in a cocktail glass


This next is called the Abbey.

Abbey

1/2 dry gin
1/4 Lillet
1/4 orange juice
1 dash Angostura bitters

Shake and strain into cocktail glass.

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